l.a. trying to become a star. >> unbelievable. all right. i learned that republicans and democrats are talking past each other and the white house really feels like they have done everything they can do to get the republicans onboard. hopefully the two sides will start talking to each other. chain cpi, maybe they can come together on, who knows. mike, if it's way too early, what time is it? >> it's time for "morning joe" if it's way too early. >> just go. >> right now it's time for chuck todd. >> thanks for watching. >> did he say adult? sorry. will things ever be the same again for chuck hagel? it's the final countidown despite a last-ditch new wave of opposition from senators and headaches. looks like the pentagon pick will get confirmed in about 100 hours. also this morning, a question that sounds like a riddle. why are hispanic candidates having trouble winning over

hispanic voters? a deep dive into the numbers that tell an interesting tale that you may not have known. and the 2016 friday free for all. rubio, warren, cruz, omaly, and more, bunch of them making moves big and small. we're going to keep track of it once a week, this year. >> good morning from madison, wisconsin, it's friday, february 22nd, and this is "the daily rundown." here's chuck todd. >> thanks to alex for braving the cold weather there at the universe of wisconsin. keep those clips coming. let's get to my first reads of the morning. next tuesday the senate will vote on chuck hagel's confirmation and barring any last-minute surprises, hagel will be confirmed. his opponents are running out of

time. opponents hoped that bying time with a filibuster would work. the last 24 hours really does feel like a last gasp from opponents who understand he has the vote. senator john cornyn of texas wrote a letter to the president demanding his withdrawal. it's -- without the broad base of bipartisan support and confidence needed to serve effectively. but it's significant that cornen only got 14 other senators to signen and that that's where they were going, begging the president to withdraw hagel. then hoke inhofe said, make no mistake, a vote for cloture and a vote to confirm hagel as secretary of state. translation, don't have the votes anymore to stop this vote

from going on. the white house was already just one vote away from breaking the filibuster. licensed graham and john mccain have said they will likely vote -- also yesterday, hagel also picked up another republican for confirmation from alabama's richard shelby. here's what shelby told his hometown paper, that though he has concerns about hagel's nomination, he plans to vote for him and expects hagel to win senate confirmation. quote, he's probably as good as we're going to get, he told the paper. it's clear hagel's opponents know their firewall is cracking. the white house is continuing to vent their frustration about how long it's taking. it was this was press secretary jay carney yesterday. >> just to be clear, he won't be withdrawn? >> absolutely not.

any suggestion to the otherwise might have been found in the minutes of the friends of hamas. >> friends of ha muss is supposedly that group that gave money to hagel but never existed. treasury nominee jack lew. he has been asked and he's answered more questions for the record than every nominee for the department since 1995 combined. white house circulated this chart which shows lew has answered 444 questions ford, 395 of them from republicans, and if you go back to willy benson, you see those numbers are really small. it is amazing. and of course treasury nominees have to go through that ridiculous senate finance committee vetting process, which is an absurd level all on its own. the governors are coming to

town. the nation's governors have arrived in town. the president and vice president meet with democratic governors. some republican governors have complained about the impact defense and domestic cuts are going to have in their home states. for instance, virginia's bob o'donnell wrote a letter to the president this week sounding the alarm about the potential devastation that looming cuts to defense due to sequestration will have to national security and on the economic well-being of the sits of the commonwealth. bad enough to apply political pressure to republicans ot home. next week, they're going after the defense cuts that are coming in republican districts. on monday, the president heads

to virginia to visit newport news ship building, open to members of congress like republican scott richard. this is not a theoretical problem like up in washington. this is reality. >> reporter: and the reality is congressman riggel voted for what is the monster known as sequestration. >> rippling through our defense readiness. >> look at what they're describing it as. the local reporter described it as the monster that is sequestration. here's something everyone should brace for. the automatic cuts are going to take place, at least in the short-term. the reasoning we've heard from both democrats and republicans is simply republicans need the sequester to go through in order to show to the base that they're

willing to fight the president. and though the president called house speaker john boehner and senate leader mcconnell yesterday, it was clear that both sides are ready for the next round of negotiations over the all around resolution to keep the government funded. and the political fallout when the sequester does take place. the president diagnosed the other party's problems in an interview with al sharpton. >> their basic view is that nothing is important enough to raise taxes on wealthy individuals or corporations. and they would prefer to see these kinds of cuts that could slow down our recovery over closing tax loopholes. and that's the thing that binds their party together at this point. >> and in another interview with radio host joe madison, the

president acknowledged that he expects the cuts will likely go into effect. >> in terms of what your listenership can do, obviously just insisting to their members of congress, especially if they live in a republican district, that this is a really bad idea. but i'll be honest with you right now, it's not clear to me that the republicans are going to agree to turn the sequester off despite the fact that 75% of the american people agree with me in terms of the approach. >> meanwhile the white house tipped its hand on the coming negotiations on the white house blog. they argued, quote, the president has already reduced the deficit and he's laid out a specific plan to do more. and they posted the president's last offer to boehner. significantly, by the way, they're putting the offer of the so-called chain cpi, that measure of inflation, in writing. that's something that hasn't been very popular among democrats, and they did put it in writing, and while they don't

say the word social security anywhere, that is essentially the white house coming out and putting in writing that they will agree to some cuts in future benefits, at least chain cpi. finally it's friday, we've decided it's time for your 2016 roun-ups. ted kennedy has raised in the domestic speaking circuit, quietly arguing that he is eligible to run for higher office someday. and arguing in a three-pronged assessment of his party's 2010 failures that republicans need to position themselves better with minority voters. so as cruz takes a national tour, florida's marco rubio wrapped up a trip to israel, jordan, telling an audience at a jerusalem press conference.

bobby jindal and o'donnell will be in washington this weekend. maryland governor martin o'malley gets a little -- senator warn is urging people to contribute to her action committee. vice president biden warned that there is a moral price to be paid for inaction revamping the nation's gun laws, but it's interesting to hear him make that as somebody who's got 2016 in his -- >> he said, joe, look, he said you don't have to do this if you don't want, but i'd like you to lead this effort. people say and you read and people write about the political risk and why they're unacceptable to take on. i say it's unacceptable not to take these on. if you're concerned about your political survival, you should

be concerned about the survival of our children. >> so there you have it. it has been interesting to hear biden and how he's talked about guns. you can tell he knows this is potentially tricky for him politically, and you've heard whispers for him in 2016 that he knows that, which is why he's been trying to straddle and calibrate how he pushes. up next, we're going to spend time with north carolina governor. how his state is dealing with the looming sequester, the healthcare law and the economy, and plus whether the republican party needs to change its tune. and a democratic governor is getting a big hand. bill clinton lends his star power to the virginia race that we won't be able to stop talking about all year. but first, take a look at today's politics planner. the new prime minister of japan

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. when republican pat mccrory won the north carolina governor's race in november, he declared, quote, the curse is over. what was he talking about? mccrory broke the democrats' hold on the highest office, becoming only third republican governor in north carolina since 1991. it's also the only seat that flipped from democrat to

republican in the past election. many of those governors are coming to town this weekend for the nation's governors association meeting, including the new governor, pat mccrory, who joins me. good morning. >> great being here. the curse is also mayor sharp. >> no charlotte mayor had ever been governor. ed rendell had to break that curse in pennsylvania. >> we got out in the ruler areas and gains their trust and we've got a great relationship. >> let's talk first, sequestration. a lot of people in washington, when they think north carolina, they think there's a lot of military bases there. have you done your own analysis? what kind of impact is it going to have? >> we don't know. we're greatly concerned because the basic budget allows only

none personnel operating cuts, which is only going to hit the civilians. and we don't know what the real impact is going to be right now. in fact, that's one of the issues i hope to talk to people at the white house about and at the pentagon while i'm here this week. it's not the way to do budgeting. and i've been locked up in a room as governor for the past several weeks in a room, no curtains, i mean, with curtains, just doing work. and that's what i want the president and congress to do. >> you were also saying to me, one of the things you did on your budget was you had to raise some business taxes. you didn't like it but you had to do it. what do you tell your republican friends in the house? if the president is insisting on some tax hikes, should they look at those loopholes? >> i think they did just raise some taxes. i'm closing some loopholes right

now in some income tax reform, but the fact of the matter is we need to reform the way we spend money in government, and there is so much waste right now, and for example, right now in medicaid, we just found over $2 million of wasted money during the past two to three years. so we've got to look at how to spend the money more effectively. but i owed the federal government $2.6 billion for unemployment compensation. i owe the federal government that money. so i cut some of the benefits and also raised some of the fees on businesses because they were only paying off the interest. i believe government, whether at the city, state or federal level, has to pay off the credit card, because one thing i learned in my own family, if the credit card keeps compounding, you're just digging yourself in a hole. >> let me ask you about medicaid, obviously the president's healthcare law, a big part has to do with two aspects that they need state cooperation for. one is the idea of expanding medicaid and one is the idea of

setting up these health insurance exchanges. you have said you don't want to do either. >> i had five weeks to make that decision so it was a very short time. several reasons. one is our current medicaid system in north carolina is broken. the system of delivery. our administrative costs are 30% higher than many, many states throughout the united states. >> why is your administrative costs higher there? >> we're trying to figure it out. a lot of it's bureaucracy. some of it is fraud and abuse. we've got to cut down on that. so before i expand a system, i've got to fix the current system. >> so it sounds like, does that mean if once you feel like you've fixed our system, you would be open to expanding? >> based upon two other factors. also the federal government has to give more flexibility to the states regarding flexibility on how we give medicare and also is there any responsibility on these -- i'm sorry, medicaid, is there any responsibility on

those, for example, on copayments, any example on copayments so there's no abuse. and right now the states aren't being given that flexibility on medicaid. >> so when a state says no to saying they don't want to set it up, it does mean you're saying i'm going to let the federal government tell us what to do on these exchanges. so that is always the push-pull here, and there are a lot of republicans who say, no, no, the states know better. >> we may want to take it over, but right now we don't know the real cost of it, and we don't even know the rules, and the rules are kind of being made up and interpreted as we speak. i want to know what the rules are and the real cost before i devote a huge knew bureaucracy which i would have to set up within government. so we're trying to get clarity on what the real rules are, what the administrative costs will be, and we'll take that into

consideration. >> i had you on day after the election, you were maybe the only bright spot for the republican party, and you said one reason you were proud of our campaign, you didn't go negative, or you felt like you had a different tone. >> yeah, i think sometimes we come across as too negative, i think we come across as too strident. by the way, the democrats at times have gone through periods like this. we need to be problem-solvers, we need to be likable, and we need to have a vision. it doesn't mean we change our philosophy. i didn't change my philosophy in winning this election by over 11 points, but i did make sure we had a tone that appeals not just to republicans but also democrats and independents. and people are looking for leadership, they're looking for problem-solvers, they're looking for hard workers, they're not looking for whiners on either side. >> we don't like whiners here either. tim russert always has a great

thing, no whiners. >> and we need hard where do you work. i ask the congress to get to work in washington. >> thanks for coming in. enjoy your big dinner in the white house sunday night. programming note for you with the governor's meeting here in washington, "meet the press" is going to have their share of governors. bobby jindal will be bobby's exclusive guests. next, going after republicans on guns with paid media. and why jimmy carter says president obama has him to thank for winning re-election. today's trivia, how many former mayors won gubernatorial elections in 2012? the person to tweet the correct answer to me will get an on air shout-out. the answer is coming up on "the daily rundown." doing it with a cold, just not going to happen. ♪

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and breaking news, out of south africa, the judge has granted bail for oscar pistorius, the track star accused of murdering his girlfriend. said today that he would remain free pending trial. it seemed the judge had been leaning that way all along when he really questioned the prosecution that because pistorius had a home in italy, that he was a flight risk. a pair of former presidents get in the headlines for lending a pair of helping hands. the remnants of the 2012 campaign has made his first -- ads go live today, same day that ofa is holding its first day of action supporting the president's gun control plan. the ad targets 16 gop lawmakers

who have not publicly committed to stricter background checks. we're showing you bob mckeanen, but they're showing the one that has the biggest chance of passing. former president bill clinton is kicking off the political cycle next month. for terry mcauliffe. mcauliffe is running against republican ken cuccinelli. remember, a third candidate could enter as a candidate. thrown by investment banker who was a major donor to clinton back in the day. kentucky senator rand paul cut a six figure check to the treasury yesterday. about 17% of his entire office budget because he says he doesn't need the money. paul says it's the only budget he can control and stressed that his office has tried to cut everywhere he can.

it's not the first time he's done it. last year senator paul returned a half a million dollars. also it's worth noting paul isn't the only one known to give back. last year, virtually every senator returns a few bucks to the treasury every year. a shocking statistic out of the detroit news today. nearly half of the city's property owners failed to pay their taxes last year, and we wonder why detroit is in tatters right now. the paper says 47% of the city's properties were delinquent on taxes. many of those who didn't pay question why they should pay taxes when the city isn't providing services. hay, folks, it's a chicken and egg issue here. finally, former president jimmy carter told cnn's piers morgan that the president thanked his

grandson, who is a political opposition researcher. james reportedly was the go between in were iing mother jones with the new infamous tape. here's what carter, the former president had to say about it. >> when james went to meet president obama, president obama ran across the room, embraced him and thanked him. >> basically, carter won obama the election. >> i think so. that's kind of a prejudice. >> kind of. >> he said seriously that the 47% tape was a pivotal moment for the obama relocation campaign, which both campaigns acknowledge. up next, the minority report, we're bringing back the touch screen, taking a dive into a mystery, why are latinos losing in latino districts. you're watching the "the daily rundown."

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you've heard it before, the growing number of hispanic americans has made them a critical block for future candidates and political parties. so why are hispanic candidates having trouble winning some of them over? it's the subject of today's deep dive. basis on some fiftying research by nathan gonzalez, let's take a look at the how the hispanic has done over the past two decades. in 1990 hispanic made up 10% of districts. let's fast-forward to now. this year hispanics make up almost 23% of democratic drawn congressional districts, nearly 12% of republican districts and nearly 17 percent of the electorate as a whole. but what's more interesting is how much trouble hispanic candidates are having in districts with significant

hispanic population. there are 58 congressional districts around the country. we'll see how my drawing is. 58 around the countries and no surprise to where these hispanic districts with at least 30% of the population being hispanic. six in florida, and some up there in the northeast. what's interesting there is less than half, just 25 of them are represented by a hispanic member of congress or 43%. the reasons vary. in some places there's no hispanic candidate running. the constant, the gap between hispanic voter and actual voter tends to be wider. african-americans, they don't have this problem. there are 44 congressional districts where african-american voters make up -- 32 of those

districts are represented by an african-american member of congress. that's about 73%. we're going to take a deeper dive here with nathan gonzalez. you can find out more on nbclatino.com. this article was written by nathan gonzalez. nathan, as i walk over here, this has been something that i think we've noticed anecdotally, and you decided to take this dive. >> i think there's a couple reasons, but one is that the population, at every level, from the population of a district to the voting age of after district, then to the citizen voting age of a district to the actual electorate, at each of those steps, the latino influence is diminishing, and so when you get to the actual

election, it decreases the power of the latino vote. we don't have exit polling data, but if we look at it nationwide, if we look at african-american population, it's about 13% in this country. it was about 13% of the electorate in 2012. the hispanic population is about 16% but only 10% of the electorate in 2012 nationwide. >> we've also seen, democratic primaries, when you would expect and you'd have an hispanic candidate, and we've seen this in texas, there are a lot of times when an anglo candidate will defeat a hispanic candidate. it's not just the population not matching the voter number. voter engagement seems to be an issue. >> right. there's six congressional districts that have at least 30% of the voting population age being hispanic and black.

and in five out of six the black candidate prevailed usually not democratic primary, and so it comes down to that electorate, the latino electorate isn't matching the population, but in some of these races there isn't a latino candidate will be elected because these officials understand that that voting age population can be a mirage and doesn't look like a great opportunity for a latino candidate. >> it seems like, and this is something you see when you talk to democrats, they wish there were more hispanic state-wide candidates. there seems to be a pipeline issue, and it goes to right here. you're not seeing some of these candidates. is there an effort underway at all among groups both on the republican or democrat side to say run for council, then run for mayor, to create essentially the candidate bench? >> i think buoth parties, but

some would say the party is to blame because the party is still saying, no, you need to wait your turn. i talked about where reuben keegan was the choice, but when the former congresswoman said she wanted to run, they said, reuben, step aside. in some cases it's having candidates in the pipeline, but there's a lot of frustration for people to say, why do we have to keep waiting our turn when we have this big population? >> but is there any evidence to suggest that latino voters don't necessarily respond to identity politics? >> well, i think we probably fall into the trap of calling latino votes, that it's one unified vote, and it's very diverse, whether the background origin, but also the issues that the latino community cares about. and so it's not just about a voting block, and even if there

were more credible latino candidates, it doesn't mean they're going to get elected. what kind of ideology do they have, and what do the districts look like? >> thank you. we put it to television, as always. thank you. you can check out his report on nbclatino.com. we always check out the rothenberg political report and his boss, stew. our gaggle will be here next, but first, what's the white house soup of the day. this is a new one. peanut soup. greatest peanut soup i've ever had is in williamsonburg, virginia. my mother made the best toffee in the world. it's delicious. so now we've turned her toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long

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upset, the underdog americans beat the russians. remember, the defeat of the soviets was never the gold medal game. it was to get to the gold medal game. more on that breaking news out of south africa. the judge has granted bail for oscar pistorius, the track star accused of murdering his girlfriend. our nbc correspondent is in pretoria with the latest. michelle, it seemed in all your reporting that this is where the judge was leaning most of the time. where were the judge's reasonings for granting bail? >> we did think this would happen, also based on precedent. but the judge kept everyone guessing throughout the day and this ruling which lasted two hours. some of this was an expected

reading of all the details. but the judge went back and forth, sort of leaning to one side and then the other in his opinion. first he criticized the prosecution's case, saying the chief investigator they had as a witness gave some flawed testimony. he didn't do the work he should have done, the judge said, but, he then stated, that is still not the totality of the state's case. then he hit the defense, saying he had serious problems with pistorius's account of what happened that valentine's day morning, saying if pistorius felt so vulnerable as he claimed, that he had too grab his gun immediately and run into the bathroom not knowing who was in there and start shooting, then why did he rush into danger? if he felt that scared, he had so many other opportunities and ways to escape available to him. however, he rounded it out by saying pistorius is not a flight risk, he is not broken to

violence. and those only big questions on the table, flight risk, is he a danger to the public or threat to justice, and the judge decided he was not. he will be granted bail and released this evening. there was a cheer that went up in the courtroom when that was announced. >> all right, michelle. thanks very much. so now the drama will be the trial. all right. the president has been using his outside game to sell his position on sequester. talking to local tv affiliates and radio shows, surrounding himself with first responders. meanwhile republicans have been playing an inside game, trying to build support for their position against the cuts and begging the media to say it's obama that started the sequester, not them. no one is really putting energy to making a deal. >> to know that some of those people are uncertain about where their job is going to be is very, very scary. >> probably put me down, the

lowest wages i could possibly get. >> possibly answering? >> oh, yeah. everybody's a little concerned. >> those were some of our local affiliates who have been doing people on the street retrieves. >> let's bring in the political editor and nbc contribute, and amy walter, the national editor at the koch report. >> deja vu. we're fatigued as political analysts and reporters. the white house is fatigued. boehner's office is fatigued. >> and the public is absolutely fatigued. they are totally checked out. >> the only people that care are the activists, and the republican activists, they have to deliver on the sequester, don't they? >> they have to deliver on something that equals spending cuts. how it happens is not as important as the fact that it does happen. but the issue is, is it more

important to get the spending cuts or is it more important to defend against the tax hikes? and i think at the end of the day, the tax hikes are the one they're willing to go to bat for, and unfortunately for the republicans, that's one of the toughest things to have to get. >> it is. we saw in the bloomberg poll and we saw in the pew, "usa today" polling. the public's always for, jane, raising somebody else's taxes. >> they are. >> not their own, but they say rich people. >> rich people, yes. >> raise that guy's taxes. >> and actually all the proposals to try to trim are still targeted at the wealthy people, even here in washington. and so in our poll when we asked, are you for a sliding scale on social security benefits or medicare benefits, typically the response on a straight question on social security and medicare cuts is, no, no, don't do it. but when we added what about a

sliding scale so the wealthy get less, they were all for it. go for it. >> and it works, it always works, we know that. but perry, watching what the white house is doing, is there any penalty for them to be paid for not demanding that boehner and mcconnell come over to the white house and start doing like it movie "dave". >> it's clear there is. you notice the last couple days jay carney says we called the republicans. they don't want to get blamed for this. >> they've put their thing out. >> their plan out, the details over and over again. they know republicans and congress will get most of the blame, but they know the president will get some of it. >> amy, boehner put out that op-ed, and it seems to me, one of the things he's admitting is they're going to have to pass something before march 1st so they can say they passed

something, because they keep saying we passed before. >> but there's no bill. >> what are people paying attention to outside of this inner circle. there's two games being played, the game for the base, and that's really the one that boehner and republicans are much more interested in. because the games played for the wider audience, they've already lost. the approval rating of republicans in congress is i think 35 in our poll below the president. it's now a question about how do you keep your base happy. >> but the drop, the most recent drop in these republican numbers is among conservatives. >> absolutely. >> they're not happy with congressional leaders. >> but that's the tension that boehner faces, different reasons. right, the conservatives aren't happy because they haven't seen enough. the truth is in these deals that they've cut before, they have cut trillions of dollars out of the budget already, and those are cuts they don't really take credit for. i think they need a show.

they need some drama, they need to vent, and that's why a little sequester may have to happen. >> that's what i don't understand. they have -- this obviously none of us like the governoring from crisis to precicrisis, but i'm surprised republicans don't say, this is what we have to do to cut, and look, we're winning. d hadn't been in office. >> they're not -- a lot of fellow workers are worried the republicans are not making the case that they seem out of touch with -- the president is sort of acknowledging the challenges here and they're not doing that either. their message is not great on this issue. >> it seems very much more geared toward -- >> appearance. >> -- not only that but how reporters view this rather than what is going on. stick around. trivia, we ask how many former mayors won gubernatorial elections in 2012? the clue was in the show. just one. north carolina governor pat mccory was the longest serving mayor of charlotte and served for 14 years. congratulations to today's

winner waldo wilbur. somebody else actually came in first but you tweeted to me. you have to chuck to both chuck todd and at daily rundown. we're trying to steal all your followers. if you have a political trivia question e-mail us. we'll be right back. one. two. three. my credit card rewards are easy to remember with the bankamericard cash rewards credit card. earn 1% cash back everywhere, every time. [ both ] 2% back on groceries. [ all ] 3% on gas. no hoops to jump through. i earn more cash back on the things i buy the most. [ woman ] it's as easy as... one! -two. -[ all ] three! [ male announcer ] the bankamericard cash rewards credit card.

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let's bring back our gaggle perry bacon, jean cummings and amy walter. all right. the governors are in town for junkies like us it means especially and the second term of a presidency, these are a whole bunch of aspiring presidents in town. perry, who would you be most interested in following around to see and getting to know here in washington this weekend? >> andrew cuomo is pushing a lot of controversial issues, gun control, gay marriage, and he is the one person, governor, who if hillary couldn't run he still

might. he has the ego, the ambition to run anyway. >> cuomo/clinton primary fight. we never got it in '92 and we always wanted it. jean? >> i think i'd be curious to follow around governor scott walker of wisconsin. he started much of the antiunion business that crossed the country. others followed him. he is second tier on our talk about presidentials. but he talked about bold leadership. that's what you need. >> and he's been reaffirmed. he's won two elections. >> i'm going to follow around john kasich. the guy still wants to be president. remember when he -- >> i remember. i think i was the lone guy. sometimes the only reporter. >> exactly. this is ohio comeback. right? and he's certainly -- >> all right. i think the big guy is bobby jindal. i think he is turning into a serious, serious front-runner. shameless plugs. amy, you first. >> so on the way here had to listen to a lot from npr in their pledge drive.

>> yeah. >> you know what? let's give it to public radio. >> all right. moving the pledge right on air. this is going to kill people. we'll cut you off quickly. >> bloomer poll today looks at two things. sequester and also deficit. on deficit the public thinks it's getting higher when it's getting lower but i give the public credit. we asked them, what takes up 20% of the budget and they almost got it right. >> how about that? >> that was great. also my friend tiffany mott got married yesterday so congratulations to her. >> fair enough. thanks to our technicality issues all solved today, that's it for "the daily rundown." have a great weekend. we'll see you right back here on monday. coming up next chris jansing. we'll give you a little bit more for those who want more on oscar pistorius. bye-bye. i have a cold, and i took nyquil,

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